PA TV portrays Israel as foreign colonial occupier,
not a legitimate state

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

[PA TV (Fatah), March 2, 2012]

Official Palestinian Authority TV recently broadcast a video that symbolically presents Jews as foreigners with no historical connection to the land of Israel. Israel is portrayed as a foreign colonial state, with no right to exist, similar to the Romans, the Crusaders and the British rulers of the past. In this PA TV video depiction which corresponds to the political ideology of the PA, Jewish history is erased and the place of Jews in the history of the land is filled by a fabricated ancient "Palestinian people," here symbolized by a woman in white, who have withstood three foreign rulers and will overcome and defeat Israel as well.

Detailed description of videoThe PA TV video shows a woman who apparently represents "ancient Palestinians" (or possibly Muslims) going through the history of the land - replacing the Jewish people's actual history. The woman is introduced in a peaceful scene feeding birds in a period predating the Roman conquest of Judea and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Suddenly the scene is disturbed, the birds scatter and the woman runs away from various foreign invaders: first an ancient Roman soldier, then a Crusader, then a British soldier, and finally a Jew (wearing a skullcap), who throws a lit cigarette at her.

Woman runs from Roman

Crusader rule

Woman runs from British soldier

Woman runs from Jew

In the final scene, the woman stops fleeing when a man on a horse - the "new" Muslim conqueror Saladin who defeated the Crusaders - extends his hand and helps her up the mountain. He represents the coming savior who will "liberate Palestine" from Jewish-Israeli rule. In the end, the woman stands on the top of the mountain, fleeing no one anymore, symbolizing that Israel is gone like the other foreign rulers.

Saladin figure liberates "Palestinians"

Woman on mountain top, Israel gone

As mentioned, the woman seems to represent a fictitious ancient Palestinian people and the other figures symbolize different foreign rulers in the land of Israel. Jews/Israelis are portrayed as the current foreigners, who will be defeated like the Romans, the Crusaders and the British.

Background and analysisThe video expresses in symbols the most fundamental part of Palestinian Authority political ideology. The Palestinians claim to be an ancient nation who lived in the land and assert that Jews are a foreign colonial implant, with no historical connection to the land. Accordingly, Israel is said to have no right to exist as a state.

The following are examples of verbal expression of this fundamental PA ideology portraying Israel, irrespective of borders, as a foreign colonial implant with no right to exist:

"Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948."

PA TV reporter: "The Palestinian people is authentic, while it is the Israelis who are foreigners, who were invented, and sown in land that was not theirs."

[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 11, 2011]

"The Israeli apartheid state... is not the least bit interested in peace because it is nothing more than an imperialist project whose leaders want to fortify its foundations at the expense of the original owners of the land, the Palestinian people."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Columnist Adel Abd Al-Rahman, Nov. 4, 2011]

"The Zionist state is an unnatural implant, the result of a colonialist settlement project of expulsion [of original residents] and settlement [of foreign residents]. It was set down as a fact on the ground to serve colonialist purposes in a vital region, at the expense of the interests of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Columnist Adel Abd Al-Rahman, Oct. 9, 2011]

PA TV program Media Cafe with discussion about use of terminology that serves the Palestinian people.

PA TV host to guest, writer and journalist Professor Muhannad Abd Al-Hmeid: "Let's look at some terms, which most of the journalists err by using them in their reports and articles."
List of 'wrong' terms with the 'correct' forms that should be used shown on screen:

"The Zionists must acknowledge publicly, in front of the world, that the Jews have no connection to the Palestinian Arab land, upon whose ruins arose the colonialist settler Zionist plan that settles and expels, represented by the Israeli apartheid state."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Columnist Adel Abd Al-Rahman, May 27, 2011]

On PA TV history program Witnesses and Testimonies, scholars express the belief that Zionism was part of a colonialist plan:

Palestinian scholar Khaled Ayed: "The Zionist enterprise in its entirety is essentially a settlement enterprise which began at the end of the 19th century. It was and remains based on bringing over Jewish immigrants, seizing Arab land in Palestine by all possible means, and establishing colonies."
Lebanese scholar Mas'oud Zaher: "The Zionist enterprise is an integral part of the imperialist plan to seize the Arab homeland and other parts of the world. This period of the imperialist plan witnessed every sort of fascism, Nazism, Zionism, dictatorship and military regimes - all of these served the imperialist master plan. Zionism, like fascism, Nazism, dictatorship and the military regimes, including the Arab ones, served - and continue to serve - this plan."

[PA TV (Fatah), May 19, 2011]

Political advisor to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Omar Al-Ghoul:

"Israel is a country that was founded on aggression and colonialism, and it lives on the continuation of bloodshed, war and violence."

[PA TV (Fatah), April 8, 2011]

"Professor Samih Hamouda, of the political science department at Bir Zeit University, presented an analysis of the research papers written by President Mahmoud Abbas on the subject of Zionist ideology... the President [Abbas] linked Zionism to imperialism by examining the reasons for the growth of Zionism, through scientific analysis of European society and the problem of the Jews in Europe, and linking this with the aspirations of the West in the Arabic East. He added, 'In the President's research, the Zionist movement is not Jewish, nor does it flow from the desires of the Jews themselves. Rather, it is an imperialist colonialist movement which sought to use the Jews and to enlist them to further the western colonialist plans.'"